Title: Critical Error – activating debug crashed website…
Last modified: September 4, 2026

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# Critical Error – activating debug crashed website…

 *  [pinecones](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pinecones/)
 * (@pinecones)
 * [20 hours, 17 minutes ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/critical-error-activating-debug-crashed-website/)
 * Tried to log into the site I manage, as usual, and got a Critical Error message
   when attempting to log in to WordPress. I read some other posts here and then
   edited to activate and generate the error log file. After changing the file to
   activate the error log, the entire website is crashed. Previously the website
   functioned normally, I just couldn’t access WP management. I have since changed
   the wp_config.php file back to how it was: define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);, but the
   website is still totally crashed.
   I have no idea what to do with this file. Or
   what to do, period.The most recent errors on the file are 4 errors from July 
   27, 2 from July 22, and no others since February this year.None of my email accounts,
   including administration email, have received an email about whatever happened.
   I have WordFence installed and it didn’t notify me of anything either. I have
   multiple websites on the same host account, the others are fine. It was just 
   a few days ago that I last logged in and worked on this website, no problems.
    -  This topic was modified 20 hours, 13 minutes ago by [pinecones](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pinecones/).
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fcritical-error-activating-debug-crashed-website%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [20 hours, 2 minutes ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/critical-error-activating-debug-crashed-website/#post-19011371)
 * You’ve probably made a syntax error in the wp-config.php file. Make sure the 
   spelling is exact. The lines to enable the debug.log should look like this:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
       ```
   
 * They must not use different quotation marks, as shown in your post here:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
       ```
   
 * If this still doesn’t work, it’s best to contact your hosting provider’s support
   team. They can also give you access to their own error log.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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## Tags

 * [site crash](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/site-crash/)
 * [troubleshooting](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/troubleshooting/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * Last activity: [20 hours, 2 minutes ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/critical-error-activating-debug-crashed-website/#post-19011371)
 * Status: not resolved

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